Coronavirus: Travis County Illness Count 3,232, No New Deaths

AUSTIN, TX — The number of cases of the coronavirus illness across Travis County grew by 46 on Saturday over the past 24 hours, bringing the historical count to 3,232. The number of fatalities remained unchanged from the previous day at 93.

According to a statistical dashboard maintained by Austin Public Health, Hispanic patients comprise 56 percent of all cases even while the segment represents 48.7 percent of the county's population. The latest statistics indicate 79 people remain hospitalized for the respiratory illness as 1,152 patients have recovered since contracting the virus.

Of those currently hospitalized, 34 are being treated at intensive care units and another 19 are on ventilators, according to the dashboard.

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The 46-patient increase recorded on Saturday is less than the 62 new diagnoses recorded the previous day. Also on Friday, one new death from the respiratory illness was reported in the same 24-hour period. Thursday saw 67 new cases of the illness and another death.

Travis County cases crossed the 3,000 mark this week when the illness count reached 3,057 on Wednesday — 73 more than the previous day. Also on that day, another three patients succumbed to the respiratory illness.

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Such upward trends prompted Austin and Travis County to extend dual "Stay Home, Work Safe" orders until June 15 as regional officials seek to blunt the spread of illness. Also this week, Austin Mayor Steve Adler, former Travis County Judge Sarah Eckhardt and interim Health Authority Dr. Mark Escott hosted a presentation highlighting the need to keep regional hospitalizations to 20 or below daily before fully reopening the local economy.

To better apprise residents on illness trends, Austin Public Health also unveiled a new statistical dashboard with a heightened focus on new key indicators for moving between risk stages. The dashboard features illness counts per stage levels, including:

• Stage 1 (Green): Zero (0) new COVID-19 hospital admissions in a 7-day period
• Stage 2 (Blue): Average of less than 5 new COVID-19 hospital admissions in the MSA in 7-day period
• Stage 3 (Yellow): Average of 5-19 new COVID-19 hospital admissions in the MSA in a 7-day period
• Stage 4 (Light Orange): Average of 20-70 new COVID-19 hospital admissions in the MSA in a 7-day period
• Stage 5 (Red): Average of 70 or more new COVID-19 hospital admissions in the MSA in a 7-day period

To see the new dashboard, click here.

Elevated rates of illness come against a backdrop of expanded business reopening across the state as Gov. Greg Abbott seeks to reignite an economy stalled by virus-spurred closures. This week, water parks were added to the list of business set to reopen to the public on Friday. Hours after the governor announced the new round of openings, Typhoon Texas officials announced they would be open on Friday at limited occupancy levels.

As part of the latest round of openings, Abbott also directed operators of food courts within shopping malls to restart and allowed for sports programs to resume.